Etimology
From Middle English trade (“path, course of conduct”), introduced into English by Hanseatic merchants, from Middle Low German trade (“track, course”), from Old Saxon trada (“spoor, track”), from Proto-Germanic *tradō (“track, way”), and cognate with Old English tredan (“to tread”); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dreh₂- (“to tread, walk, step, run”).
noun
trade (countable and uncountable, plural trades)
(uncountable) Buying and selling of goods and services on a market.
(countable) A particular instance of buying or selling.
(countable) An instance of bartering items in exchange for one another.
(countable) Those who perform a particular kind of skilled work.
(countable) Those engaged in an industry or group of related industries.
(countable) The skilled practice of a practical occupation.
(countable or uncountable) An occupation in the secondary sector, as opposed to an agricultural, professional or military one.
(uncountable, UK) The business given to a commercial establishment by its customers.
(chiefly in the plural) Steady winds blowing from east to west above and below the equator.
(only as plural) A publication intended for participants in an industry or related group of industries.
(uncountable, gay slang) A masculine man available for casual sex with men, often for pay. (Compare rough trade.)
(obsolete, uncountable) Instruments of any occupation.
(mining) Refuse or rubbish from a mine.
(obsolete) A track or trail; a way; a path; passage.
(obsolete) Course; custom; practice; occupation.
Examples
Synonym: commerce
I did no trades with them once the rumors started.
Synonyms: deal, barter
EXCHANGE — A trade or swap of no material profit to either side.
When Golden State matched the Knicks' offer sheet, the Warriors and Knicks worked out a trade that sent King to New York for Richardson.
The skilled trades were the first to organize modern labor unions.
But through the oligopoly, charcoal fuel proliferated throughout London's trades and industries. By the 1200s, brewers and bakers, tilemakers, glassblowers, pottery producers, and a range of other craftsmen all became hour-to-hour consumers of charcoal.
Synonym: business
It is not a retail showroom. It is only for the trade.
In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade
He learned his trade as an apprentice.
Synonym: craft
After failing his entrance exams, he decided to go into a trade.
Most veterans went into trade when the war ended.
Subsequently some Scottish troops settled, took up trade as weavers, tailors, or mariners, and married Dutch women.
Getting a job in your major is no breeze: Remember we made fun of those who took up a trade
Even before noon there was considerable trade.
Synonym: patronage
They rode the trades going west.
Calms and variable winds, are also experienced during every month of the year, in the space between the trades; […] the vicinity of the north-east trade seems most liable to them.
Rumors about layoffs are all over the trades.
In a homosexual of this kind—corresponding to the test of eccentric behavior in the drawing-room—one usually finds a preference for "trade," i.e., sexually normal males, because, if another homosexual yields to him, he is only one of a class, but if he can believe that an exception is being made in his case, it seems a proof that he is being accepted for himself alone.
Josh picked up some trade last night.
His House and household Gods! his trade of War, / His Bow and Quiver; and his trusty Cur.
A postern with a blind wicket there was, / A common trade to pass through Priam's house
As Shepheardes curre, that in darke eveninges shade / Hath tracted forth some salvage beastes trade
Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway, / Some way of common trade, where subjects' feet / May hourly trample on their sovereign's head.
The Jewes, emong whom alone and no moe, God hitherto semed for to reigne, by reason of their knowledge of the law, and of the autoritee of being in the right trade of religion.
There those five sisters had continual trade / And used to bathe themselves in that deceitful shade.
Long did I love this lady, / Long was my travel, long my trade to win her.
Thy sin's not accidental but a trade.
Related words
hyponyms
antitrade/anti-trade
basket trade
block trade
bread trade
bullet trade
carbon trade
carousel trade
carriage trade
carry trade
cash and carry trade
coasting trade
countertrade
cross-trade
day trade
fair trade
free trade
fur trade
horse trade
invisible trade
motor trade
off-trade
on-trade
out trade
paper trade
rag trade
rough trade
slave trade
spot trade
tramp trade
uptick trade
visible trade
verb
trade (third-person singular simple present trades, present participle trading, simple past and past participle traded)
(transitive, intransitive) To engage in trade.
(finance, intransitive, copulative) To be traded at a certain price or under certain conditions.
(transitive, with for) To give (something) in exchange (for).
(transitive) To mutually exchange (something) (with).
(transitive, with on) To use or exploit a particular aspect, such as a name, reputation, or image, to gain advantage or benefit.
(horticulture, transitive or intransitive) To give someone a plant and receive a different one in return.
(transitive, intransitive) To do business; offer for sale as for one's livelihood.
(intransitive) To have dealings; to be concerned or associated (with).
(transitive) To recommend and get recommendations.
Examples
Synonym: deal
This company trades precious metal.
[…] a free port, where Nations warring with one another resorted with their Goods, and traded as in a neutral Country.
Apple is trading at $200.
ExxonMobil trades on the NYSE.
The stock is trading rich relative to its sector.
Synonyms: exchange, swap, switch, truck
Will you trade your precious watch for my earring?
The rival schoolboys traded insults.
The [Halo effect] strikes our combined fleets. All ships piloted by biologicals are now [adrift]. I can trade Mendicant ship for ship now and still prevail.
Kalinin Bay is also in trouble, trading fire with Japanese destroyers and taking hits from both them and cruisers at the same time. Unlike the Gambier Bay, however, it does not appear that these ships have realized they need to switch to high explosive from armor-piercing, and, despite being riddled with shellfire, the ship stays afloat, despite this rather-unequal battering going on for another twenty to thirty minutes.
Synonyms: exploit, capitalize on, take advantage of, use, leverage, benefit from, make use of, milk
Some musicians try to trade on their past success by playing the same hits over and over again.
Synonym: do business
Saucy and over bold, how did you dare / To trade and traffic with Macbeth
Synonym: exchange
adjective
trade (not comparable)
Of a product, produced for sale in the ordinary bulk retail trade and hence of only the most basic quality.
Examples
"It is monstrous - grotesque." "But what made him draw such an animal?" "Trade gin, I should think."